Atrial fibrillation (AF) was described in animals in the 17th century by William Harvey and then confirmed as an electrocardiographic diagnosis by William Einthoven in 1906. Symptoms of AF are both somewhat generic and highly variable. These can include palpitations, fatigue, dyspnea, chest discomfort, lightheadedness and anxiety. At other times, patients don't have any ... Continue Reading
Recognizing and Treating Dysautonomia
Dysautonomia is a condition where the autonomic nervous system is dysfunctional. In other words, automatic mechanisms are not working properly — think blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, digestion of food, etc. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is one type of dysautonomia.1 POTS can be triggered by multiple conditions, including hormonal changes, ... Continue Reading
Treating Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms
An 82-year-old grandmother falls and cannot move her legs. A 33-year-old computer programmer with no medical problems suddenly develops severe back pain. A 24-year-old daycare worker suddenly cannot breathe. These are all patients with very different clinical scenarios but have one explanation. They are affected by acute thoracic aortic syndrome. In most cases, this syndrome ... Continue Reading
Increasing Access to Care for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a genetic disorder characterized by the thickening of the left ventricle in the absence of a secondary cause. Once thought to be a rare disease, it’s now estimated that hypertrophic cardiomyopathy occurs in 1 out of every 200 individuals. Since the underlying genetic cause of this disease was first discovered in the 1990s, there have ... Continue Reading
COVID-19 and the Athlete’s Heart
Considerations for return-to-play On March 11, 2020, just prior to the tip-off for the Utah Jazz versus Oklahoma City Thunder game, the National Basketball Association season was abruptly halted in dramatic fashion after it was disclosed one player had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. In subsequent and rapid fashion, other iconic American sporting events were canceled and ... Continue Reading
Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
By Chad Everett Miller, MD
An uncommon but lethal cause of right heart failure While not as common as left heart failure, right heart failure, too, is a major contributor to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), while a relatively uncommon disease, carries a poor prognosis even today as patients succumb to right heart failure. In recent decades, the ... Continue Reading
Cardiology at Grady: Pioneering and Innovating through the Years
By Nanette K. Wenger, MD, MACC, MACP, FAHA and Allen L. Dollar, MD, FACC, FACP
In the 1960s and 1970s, Grady Memorial Hospital was the major teaching hospital of Emory University’s medical school, such that most of the students and medical residents (and subsequently subspecialty residents and/or fellows) were based at Grady. With Dr. Willis J. Hurst as both Chairman of Medicine and Chief of Cardiology, a great deal of attention was focused on the ... Continue Reading
Statins, PCI or Nutrition – Which Matters?
By Neil Cooper, M.D., MHA, MSc
After my ST elevation myocardial infarction in 2012 and emergent deployment of left anterior descending stents, the first book I read was Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D. After reading other sentinel scientific studies on nutrition and heart disease, I realized the answer to the question of what’s necessary, statins, percutaneous coronary ... Continue Reading
The Emergence of Sports Cardiology
By Walter E. Mashman, M.D.*, Kathleen Turchin, BSN*, and Jonathan H. Kim, M.D.#
In 490 BC, after the Greek town of Marathon successfully defended Persian attack, the messenger Pheidippides is said to have run to Athens to deliver the news. Upon arrival, as he exclaimed “Nike!†(victory, win), Pheidippides collapsed and perished. While this legendary story represents the premise for the modern-day marathon, it can also be said to lay claim to the ... Continue Reading
ExtraCorporal Membrane Oxygenation
by Dr. Peter Barrett More than 40 years since it was first used in 1971, ECMO has become an integral part of treatment in the adult critical care community Extracorporal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a rapidly advancing form of mechanical circulatory support. ECMO was first used in 1971 by Dr. Robert Bartlett in the neonatal population for meconium aspiration. The ... Continue Reading
The Future of Valve Therapies
By Vivek Rajagopal, MD; Meredith Brazil, PA-C; Frances Lockwood, PA-C; Morris Brown, MD; Jim Kauten, MD; Christopher Meduri, MD, MPH The gold standard for treating valve disease for decades has been cardiac surgery, but transcatheter valve therapies have proved effective in numerous clinic trials. In particular, clinical trials have shown superior outcomes of ... Continue Reading
Regenerative Medicine
Does regenerative medicine hold the keys to rebuilding damaged organs, tissue and muscle? Atlanta Medicine recently spoke with some Atlanta area researchers about the promise regenerative medicine holds for the future of medicine. According to Arshed A. Quyyumi, M.D., a professor of medicine in Emory University School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiology, stem cell therapy ... Continue Reading
Hypertension and Sexual Dysfunction: Let’s Start The Conversation
By Brittany Thomas, M.D. It has been estimated that more than 150 million men worldwide have some degree of erectile dysfunction. The prevalence of erectile dysfunction is approximately two fold higher in hypertensive patients compared to normotensive patients. Due to the private nature of this problem, erectile dysfunction is often overlooked and left to the patient to ... Continue Reading
12 Tips for Hypertension in the Athlete
By John Davis Cantwell, M.D., MACP, FACC For the past 40 years, I have been doing pre-season Atlanta Braves baseball physicals at their spring training facility in Florida. Thirty-five years ago, I began doing pre-season cardiovascular examinations on freshman Georgia Tech athletes. Usually every year there are several athletes noted to have hypertension. This is not ... Continue Reading
Sports Cardiology & Women’s Heart Health
By Jonathan Kim, M.D. Case #1: A 55-year-old female triathlete self-refers herself to your clinic complaining of exertional dyspnea on exertion. She has been a high-level recreational endurance athlete for the last 25 years, competing in 25 marathons and 8 Ironman triathlons. At baseline, she runs 40 miles per week when not training for competition. She states that for the ... Continue Reading
